Currently Browsing: Efram Sera-Shriar 3 articles

Efram Sera-Shriar is a Copenhagen-based historian and writer. He received his PhD from the University of Leeds and has worked in higher education and the museum sector for nearly twenty years. Sera-Shriar has published extensively on the history of science and belief, and his forthcoming book, Psychic Investigators, explores British anthropology’s engagement with modern spiritualism during the late Victorian era. He is currently developing a new book project that will be a micro-historical study of Harry Price’s investigation of William Hope’s spirit photography in 1922.
folk Jewishness

Jewish Folk Medicine

Efram Sera-Shriar explores an often forgotten or overlooked tradition. When I used to work for the Science Museum in London, I was often asked by friends and colleagues what my favourite object was in the collection. There is so much fantastic material in the museum’s store, and there are several objects that are dear to […]

Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe

Efram Sera-Shriar reviews a new book about Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe. Not so long ago I was having a discussion about traditional Jewish folk customs with my uncle, who is a lawyer. Like me, he’s always been interested in this aspect of Jewish culture, and we chatted about things such as the supposed […]

houdini featured

A Jewish Magician Among the Spirits

Efram Sera-Shriar remembers Harry Houdini’s investigations into spirit and psychic phenomena at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1926, the famous American magician Harry Houdini (née Ehrich Weisz) participated in a series of congressional hearings to determine whether ‘fortune telling’ should be made a criminal offence in the District of Columbia. For many observers […]

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